Mohd Izham Bin Hassan graduated from the Southern New Hampshire University, USA with a Bachelor of Science Degree Majoring in Economics & Finance in May 1990. Having started his career in the banking sector with Maybank, he moved on to join one of the biggest plantation companies in Malaysia heading the insurance unit. Among his responsibilities were the procurement of the group insurance requirement and to ensure adequacy of cover for company’s risk exposure. Due to his knowledge in this field, he was assigned to the committee to set up the Enterprise Wide Risk Management (EWRM) programme for the company.
He was also assigned to conduct research on production, compile data on estate land bank and liaise with regulatory bodies on submission of monthly statistics. He has more than 15 years of experience in the plantation industry and prior to joining Malaysian Palm Oil Council, he was the Head of the Statistics Department of a major insurance company in Malaysia. He has presented papers at MPOC organised seminars in Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam and Singapore. He is currently the Manager, Marketing & Market Development Division at Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) responsible for market movement of global oils and fats.

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The total global soybean production in 2017 season is expected to exceed 330 million MT. The three main soybean producing countries, USA, Brazil and Argentina (known as G3 soybean producers) will play an important role in the supplies of soybeans. Together, these three countries are expected to produce 280 million MT or 85% of the global production.

The USA, as the biggest soybean producer in the world is expected to harvest record-high crops this year. For 2017, with the world growing two back-to-back record soybean crops, the U.S. has more export competition. High soybean yield expectations this year are based on generally favorable growing conditions to date and on the high percentage of the crop rated in good or excellent condition.

This paper will look into the various aspects in the prospects of the development of soybean production in the G3 countries in 2017. An overview of previous production patterns will be presented and will give our forecast and the role the G3 soybean production will play in the global oils & fats development in 2017.